March 29, 2024

4x400 sweep highlights night for Creston girls

SHENANDOAH — “It was a good first meet,” Creston head girls track coach Clay Arnold said after Tuesday’s Hawkeye 10 Conference Southern Division Meet here. “The finish was extra special.”

That’s because Arnold’s Panthers took the top two spots in the 4x400 relay in an impressive race.

The “B” team of Lexie Little, Breanna Wallace, Jami Sickels and Taylor Briley won the race in 4:25.47, while the “A” team of Raegen Smith, Maria Mostek, Jessica Beatty and Natalie Mostek took second in 4:25.86.

The Panthers won four events in total and placed third out of five teams with 65.5 points in the team standings.

But it was the 4x400 that was the highlight of the night for Arnold.

“The 4x4 was the race of the night,” he said. “That definitely panned out exactly like we were planning. Everybody leaving the stadium was talking about it. I split up my four fastest 400 runners into what I thought would be two evenly matched teams. Turned out, we had some good competition from Shenandoah and a little from Glenwood.”

The Creston “B” team led through the first two legs of the race, with the “A” team close behind, before Shenandoah took control going into the final exchange.

At the final exchange, Shenandoah led with Creston’s “A” team in second, Glenwood in third and the Creston “B” team in fourth.

“Taylor Briley went ahead and shifted into beast mode with a 62.44,” Arnold said about Briley’s anchor on for the “B” team. “Briley was at least 30 meters back when she got it. She got a look her eye and I knew the race was over then. Got rid of third place in the first 100 meters. Then ran down Natalie at about the 200-meter mark. Then took the Shen girl and blew her away down the straightaway. Then Natalie, with 100 meters left, shifted into overdrive to get the Shen girl, too.”

In fact, all night long, the Panther girls showed off their depth at 400 and 800 meters.

The 4x800 relay team of Maria Mostek, Little, Briley and Natalie Mostek won with a time of 10:13.56. The 4x800 “B” relay team of Beatty, Rachel Shepherd, Jami Sickels and Kristy Powers finished third in 11:00.05.

“We stacked up the ‘A’ 4x8,” Arnold said. “We knew there wasn’t going to be anybody to compete with us. We’re trying to run some fast times the next three weeks to qualify for Drake. We knew we’d have to run by ourselves.”

Arnold said six of the eight Panther girls competing in the 4x800 relay ran their second-lap split within 5 seconds of their first lap, which was a goal he gave them going into the race.

The Panthers claimed the victory in the distance medley relay, as well, thanks to a big anchor leg from Maria Mostek. When Mostek took the baton, she was about 50-60 meters back of the leaders.

“She chewed that up in no time, whatsoever, for first place,” Arnold said. “She ran a 2:33.79 anchor. Wallace ran a 66.9 third leg.”

Kiersten Latham and Josie Sickels also ran on that winning relay.

The fourth event victory of the night came from senior Monica Powers in the 3,000 meters.

Running the race for the first time since her freshman year, Powers ran a new PR by more than a minute in 12:44.57.

“I told Monica before the race I wanted her to go out and win it,” Arnold said. “I don’t think she really believed me. She ran a really strong, smart race. Listened to me really well.”

Natalie Mostek finished second in the high jump by clearing 4-10, while Wallace, a freshman, cleared 4-8. Sophomore Hannah Hood made her high school debut in the shot put, placing fourth with a toss of 32-10.25. Sister Marie Hood finished fifth with a throw of 29-11.50.

Briley, Natalie Mostek and Smith finished third through fifth in the 400 meter dash. The 4x200 relay of Beatty, Josie Sickels, Latham and Sydney Suiter placed third.

Junior Amber Castillo finished fourth in the 100 meter hurdles, while sophomore Rachel Shepherd placed fifth in the 400 meter hurdles, running 1:20.69 in her first attempt at the race.

“I was really happy with our new girls,” Arnold said. “They came out and ran hard. Obviously, we have a lot of things to work on. But we showed the depth we were hoping we had. Now we can take those and spread them around next week to try to win some team titles.”

Creston returns to action Thursday at Clarke of Osceola’s DeWitt Invitational, with just the Panther JV competing. The varsity will return to action Tuesday at Clarinda.

Hawkeye 10 Conference Southern Division Meet

At Shenandoah

Team standings — 1. Glenwood 142, 2. Shenandoah 95, 3. Creston 65.5, 4. Clarinda 61.5, 5. Red Oak 32.

Discus — 1. Jacy Embray, Glen, 107-0; 11. Marie Hood, Crest, 71-10; 13. Faith Wilson, Crest, 65-11.

Shot put — 1. Embray, Glen, 41-11; 4. Hannah Hood, Crest, 32-10.25; 5. Marie Hood, Crest, 29-11.50; 11. Faith Wilson, Crest, 26-0.25.

High jump — 1. Molly Dean, Glen, 5-1; 2. Natalie Mostek, Crest, 4-10; 5. Breanna Wallace, Crest, 4-8.

Long jump — 1. Sydney Nielsen, Shen, 16-4.75; 10. Danielle Castillo, Crest, 13-5.25; 11. Rachel Shepherd, Crest, 13-2.

3,000 meters — 1. Monica Powers, Crest, 12:44.57; 9. Angela Drey, Crest, 16:11.69.

4 x 800 relay — 1. Creston (Maria Mostek, Lexie Little, Taylor Briley, Natalie Mostek), 10:13.56; 3. Creston B (Jessica Beatty, Rachel Shepherd, Jami Sickels, Kristy Powers), 11:00.05.

Shuttle hurdle relay — 1. Glenwood, 1:08.92; 4. Creston (Amber Castillo, Leah Schuler, Nicole Haley, Danielle Castillo), 1:20.82.

100 meters — 1. Jaedra Moses, Clar, 12.64; 9. Sydney Suiter, Crest, 14.61.

Distance medley relay — 1. Creston (Josie Sickels, Kiersten Latham, Breanna Wallace, Maria Mostek), 4:42.32.

400 meters — 1. Kate Walker, RO, 1:00.97; 3. Taylor Briley, Crest, 1:04.80; 4. Natalie Mostek, Crest, 1:05.53; 5. Raegen Smith, Crest, 1:07.14; 9. Cayla Maitlen, Crest, 1:10.01.

4 x 200 relay — 1. Clarinda, 1:53.85; 3. Creston (Jessica Beatty, Josie Sickels, Kiersten Latham, Sydney Suiter), 2:00.13.

100 hurdles — 1. Miranda Ruth, Glen, 16.38; 4. Amber Castillo, Crest, 17.68; 8. Lexie Little, Crest, 18.84; 12. Leah Schuler, Crest, 19.75; 16. Nicole Haley, Crest, 21.68.

800 meters — 1. Jessica Jackson, Shen, 2:42.28; 5. Monica Powers, Crest, 2:50.11; 6. Kristy Powers, Crest, 2:51.55.

200 meters — 1. Courtney Magnussen, Glen, 27.36; 7. Breanna Wallace, Crest, 31.03; 8. Sydney Suiter, Crest, 31.14; 14. Alyssa Trembly, Crest, 37.95.

400 hurdles — 1. Dean, Glen, 1:09.20; 5. Rachel Shepherd, Crest, 1:20.69; 6. Danielle Castillo, Crest, 1:25.66; 7. Nicole Haley, Crest, 1:38.09; 8. Leah Schuler, Crest, 1:39.84.

Sprint medley relay — 1. Clarinda, 2:02.94; 3. Creston (Lexie Little, Sydney Suiter, Josie Sickels, Raegen Smith), 2:04.77; 4. Creston B (Amber Castillo, Kiersten Latham, Cayla Maitlen, Jami Sickels), 2:06.00.

1,500 meters — 1. Kate Walker, RO, 5:26.51; 8. Kristy Powers, Crest, 6:21.68; 11. Angela Drey, Crest, 7:09.52.

4 x 100 relay — 1. Clarinda, 52.06; 4. Creston (Amber Castillo, Jessica Beatty, Cayla Maitlen, Rachel Shepherd), 55.44; 5. Creston B (Kiersten Latham, Josie Sickels, Sydney Suiter, Danielle Castillo), 57.65.

4 x 400 relay — 1. Creston B (Lexie Little, Breanna Wallace, Jami Sickels, Taylor Briley), 4:25.47; 2. Creston (Raegen Smith, Maria Mostek, Jessica Beatty, Natalie Mostek), 4:25.86.